You don't deserve me but I love you
by DamagesReality
Summary: "Why can't you take the options I'm giving you! Things would have been better!" Noctis snarled. "Your options! After what you've done to me, you come and tell me to accept your offer! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH! DO YOU, NOCTIS CAELUM! YOU KNOW WHAT, THE LAST THING I WANT IN MY LIFE WAS TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Lightning snapped. "But I know you still love me claire"
1. Chapter 1

Life in college, well, it can be classified as one of the most complicated period of teenager life. 20 year-old Claire Farron or preferred to be called as Lightning, a second year college student, part time waitress and one of the strongest girls in the universe was facing college's teenager life crisis.

The problem is not about a young love affair or any family conflict like you guys expected, it is about the household financial related problem.

Lightning only has her younger sister, Serah, her only family. They've been through a lot of struggling, growing up by looking out for each other with the support from the government fund since their parents died in a very tragic accident. Frankly, Lightning is really proud of herself that she pushed through the hard time of suddenly losing her parents and had looked after her younger sister when she was just 16 while maintaining good grades for sponsor funds in college. Now it seemed like the oldest Farron has to think and prepare for her sibling's future, she needed more money to support Serah's education since Serah wanted to pursue her career to be a nurse which was quite expensive even if it was funded. So, Lightning decided to find herself a more steady job with a better pay to secure her sister's future.

Lightning has sent her application for various roles with several companies around New Budhum but every single one of them just disappeared or so it seemed to be since she never heard any respond from them. In the meantime, she felt so frustrated; it was just as if she was racing against time and if she couldn't get proper job here and now something would explode and kill her on the spot. Lightning's current situation was nothing but desperate, Serah's graduation was just a few months away, so the older Farron has to do something soon and by soon she meant now. In fact, Lightning could have had her sister working part time aswell to help funding the household, but Lightning refused that option and covered everything herself. She wanted Sarah to live a normal life as a teenager and enjoy every moment of it without missing out anything.

Whatever the case is now, she's kinda stuck. So in order to distract herself from this stress, Lightning decided to head out and have a chat with her friends, her only two friends, Fang and Vanille. They've known each other during their high school, well; it was more like they insisted to know her. Naturally, there was no one willing to be around Lightning, who was blunt and ruthless, but it was a miracle enough that Vanille and Fang successfully withstood it and became her friend.

She fished out the phone from her pocket, then she dialed the number, put it on her left ear and listened to its ringing, waiting for the other side respond.

"Hey, Light. What's up?" A husky woman's voice with an Australian accent responded.

"You free now? I wanna go out." Lightning said in a lazy tone.

"Where?"

"The coffee shop at the corner of the street of my house. I'll see you there in 10 minutes."

With that said, Light didn't even wait for Fang to reply, she hung up, gathered her things and headed out.

"Serah, I'm going out. Be back soon."

...

Lightning ordered a cup of mocha and sat on the table next to the pavement so her friends would easily notice her. However, how could anybody miss her with her pink hair? She slowly sipped the hot beverage and stared blankly towards space while contemplating random things in her head, which she herself didn't know what exactly.

"Hey, Light! What's wrong? You seem distracted." Her friend with messy black hair came, a smirk was showing on her face, bringing the day dreamer Farron back to earth.

"Hey. Where's Vanille?"

"She went to buy groceries. So what disturbed you? You look really lost."

"Nothing in particular."

"Okay, so how is Serah?"

"She's alright." Lightning replied with a lifeless voice again.

"Light, spill it. Something really bothers you here." Fang decided to press her stubborn friend for the answer. Lightning sensed that she wouldn't get away from this interrogation, so she complied.

"Life. Many things in life are too complicated, it's pressuring me. I need to find a way out soon."

"How can I help?"

"Well, I don't know. I just need a proper job, something steady. You know Serah will graduate soon." Lightning said this with a long face; her friend couldn't help but chuckle at what her friend said.

"Come on, cheer up. It's not like you to feel down, everything will be okay. Look, I think you should apply for being an intern or something. Ah yes, I remembered I got something here that could help you." Lightning stopped staring at her coffee cup and keeped her eyes on Fang, who was searching her hand bag then her older friend blurted out.

"Here." Fang said and handed her a piece of paper. Farron just stared at it with a raised eyebrow "What?"

"Read it. This company is recruiting internships or something, I remembered they could careless about the experience and stuff and the pay is better than your current job so I think you should give it a try."

Lightning reached out, accepting the paper from her friend and started reading it.

"Caelum Corporation... Hey isn't this the global company in the city? I haven't come across this until you told me. That's weird. Where did you get this?" Lightning asked while her eyes were still scanning contents of the paper.

"Vanile gave it to me."

Buzzz...

Fang took out her phone and checked out the message she received. It was Vanille, she texted her to come and help her with the groceries. Fang didn't want to leave her pink-headed friend yet but she needed to help Vanille with the groceries.

"Hey Light, Sorry I gotta go. Vanille needs me right now. Geez, I wonder if that girl wiped out the entire market. Anyway, give it a try and chill out alright. See ya later." Fang said and patted her friend's shoulder lightly then made her way out of the coffee shop.

"Fine. Have fun." Lightning waved her friend off when Fang nodded in acknowledgement on her way.

"Okay, time to head back too." The pink-headed girl murmured and placed the paper in her pocket, went back to finish her coffee before she could go back home.

...

It took Fang sometime to find her cousin in the crowd of people. Seriously does the market always this crowded? Fang asked herself but quickly brushed it off when she made her way toward Vanille at the counter.

"Hey, Fang!" The girl's cheerful voice greeted.

"Yeah, so what have you bought?"

"Nothing much. Just groceries and some decorations." Vanille replied with a big grin on her face.

"More decorations?! Vanille are you sure we still have space for all those?" The older woman blurted out.

"We doooo~." Vannile turned to her older cousin and cooed.

"Fine, whatever." Fang signed.

They proceed to check out, put all the stuff into the trolley and making their way back to the vehicle.

"So you were with Light?" Vanile asked her older cousin.

"Yeah. She's stressed and wanted to talk but I wasn't able to help her that much since you texted me to help you."

"Opps, I'm sorry."

"Nah, we both know about Light. She doesn't like people nagging her and I think that little paper you gave me helped her."

"Paper? Oh yeah, so she needed a new job or something?" The smaller girl asked curiously.

"Yup. It's going to be Serah's graduation soon."

Vanille hummed in agreement.

...

"Just one click and its ready to go." Lightning murmured to herself contented with the work she just finished. The strawberry blond saved her application carefully in her hard drive. She then opened her email and uploaded it to send it to Caelum Corporation.

Click. Sent.

After a week, Lightning had received an unexpected phone call from Caelum Corporation informing that her application is shortlisted and is scheduled for an interview. She was so thrilled and relieved at the same time. It was like seeing a patient who in is in a coma starting respond to the medication.

...

Lightning Farron was ready to face whatever was coming in the interview room while she will be interviewed. This is the last obstacle between her and what she desired, she just need to conquer it and get the job done. This is nothing Lightning, you can do it. She kept telling this herself while waiting for her turn to come, oblivious to the her surroundings that there was someone who just walked past her and had his eyes on her intensely.

"Interesting." He silently said to himself.

...

The interviewing sessions were all over so the HR prepared all the related documents for the meeting to evaluate and make the selection. In a modern office room, a handsome man with a black tailored suit and night black styled with messy spikes at the back of his head, stared straight forward to the long luxurious table with a few other officers sitting on the each side. One of those officers was relying on all the strengths and weakenesses of the candidates he interviewed. When the speech ended, that man who was the edge of the table voiced out.

"The girl with pink hair, who was she again?"

"Ms. Claire Farron? She's good but she doesn't have much experience related to this job, nonetheless she has the potential."

"It's okay. I decided to invest in this internship to bring out a potential human resource and after contemplating her background, she's my selection. So is it alright, gentlemen?" He waited.

The other men on the table murmured to one another before nodding to the one who awaited for an answer.

"Yes? Then its settled. Alright gentlemen, thank you for today." He bowed politely to his co-workers then stood up, straightened his suit and started to make his way out. There might be no one who noticed this but he was smirking, contented of something.

TBC

So how was it guys?

And yeah, thank you so much for viewing and reviewing my first story Inevitable? Please keep that coming, I really appreciate it.

Anyway, for this one it going to be a multi chapter story ;)

Again thank you for reading and please review so I could improve for the better story.

Until next time.

Edited: Thank you Dynasty101Warriors for beta.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I just realized that I haven't made any disclaimer last chapter. Oh how stupid am I, Square might have sued me already.**

**Anyway, better late than never, here goes:**

**All the characters of this story belong to Square Enix, I, DemagesReality own nothing but little plot of this fiction.**

**Okay guys, Enjoy!**

Getting a job at Caelum Corporate was seriously a dream come true for Lightning, able to put down the mountain she's carried around was just like born anew. Phone call from the corporate yesterday really helped Lightning relax her nerve and gained back her focus for school. Last 2 months, the pink-headed hasn't able to study at all, even though she was in class her attention whereabouts was only god who knew. Nevertheless, thing has getting better now, the older Farron secured a job with a famous global company in her city, though it was just a 3 months contract of employment, Lightning confident she would demonstrate herself and get employed permanently afterward. This internship was starting Monday next week, so our strawberry blond has already resigned from her previous workplace.

And thanks to all that, Sarah had dragged the grumpy Lightning to buy some formal clothes ready for this new job. She wanted Lightning to look as professional as possible.

"Sarah, I find this so unnecessary." The older girl whined, her voice full of annoyance when Sarah presented her another blouse and skirt.

"Come on sis, you're not a waitress anymore. Things need to be changed, this time it's a global company. Looking professional is important and who know maybe you'll get to know someone special there." Sarah teased.

"Oh please Sarah." Lightning almost rolled her eyes. Seriously, why would girl like Lightning care about romance? To her there no time to waste for this relationship and there're enough people crazy about it. _Screw the romance._

Eventually, Sarah Farron has successfully forced her sister to buy 3 blouses, 3 mini skirts and a pair highheels. Yes, the most difficult thing to accomplish in this universe was to get Lightning a pair of highheels. It's not weird at all that _she_ doesn't want to be anywhere nears that thing; Lightning's always wondered how people could walk on those unstable shoes. Irony enough, now her younger sister had got her a pair of it, so that mean Lightning had to go through whole week training, well, more like a tutored to her, learning to walk on that thing.

...

"Okay sis, come to me. You'll be alright." Sarah encouraged when Lightning was standing stiffly on her shoes.

"Sarah, I can't do this. I am going to fall face first on the floor." Lightning complained.

"Nah, you'll be fine."

Determined not to lose to this stupid shoes, Lightning confidently took her steps toward her sister.

"Fine, here I go." Surprisingly, it was easier than expected, though she still couldn't balance her body properly but the step wasn't uncomfortable as she thought.

"Not bad Light, keep it up. You look so elegant on that, you know? Geez, I should have tried this sooner." Sarah cheered.

"Whatever." The older Farron stubbornly brushed that comment off.

_Ting Tong._

Farron's household bell rang. The two sisters pretty much could pin point who was at the door. Well, it wasn't like there many people who would visit them aside from their few friends and occasionally deliveries. Sarah went to get it and when the door opened, as expected, Fang and Vanille were standing there.

"Hey, guys! Come on in." Sarah greeted cheerfully.

"Hey Sarah, how is it going?" Vanille chirped back while embracing the younger Farron.

"Hey, girl. So where's Light?" Fang asked, looking around for the older pink-headed.

"Great...She's inside with her shoes~"

"Shoes?!" Fang seemed to taken aback by this statement but Sarah just giggled and leaded her guests to the living room, where Lightning was struggling to get her _shoes_ off.

Witnessed this, Fang couldn't help, she started laughing uncontrollably while beside her, Vanille was in awe to see Lighting in highheels.

"So.. now light's ... also using... those ridiculous... shoes too?" Fang managed between her laugh.

"Aw Lightning, you're so gorgeous you know? I can't believe this. Sarah, how did you do this?" Vanille commented with a big grin spread on her tiny face.

Before Sarah got to answer Vanille's question, Lightning who seemed to ready to burst out because of embarrassment at any second, had lashed out at Fang who was still laughing hard.

"Shut up Fang! It's not like I have a choice here and nothing is funny so stop laughing!" Lightning said and glared dagger to her friend, who was trying to contend her humor now. After few minutes, Fang has successfully calmed herself back to normal but everyone could see that she was still more than amused with the incident.

"Come on Light. That was new, heh. Anyway, congrats." Fang cheered in her normal tone.

"Shut it!" Lightning annoyingly hissed back.

"So Sarah transformed you to a real angel now? Ah, that a good sign. Maybe soon enough we'll get to see a new family membeeer~"

"We sure better hope so vaniiillle~" The younger Farron cooed back to her sister's friend and that earned a deadly glare from Lightning. Intimidated, both girls decided to drop the topic before rain of bomb fall down destroying this living room.

"Okay girls, we're not here to laugh or tease Light. We're here to celebrate her new job. Vanille and I propose a dinner here. We'll cook and arrange everything together, sound great?" Fang clapped, recapped back to the main point of her visit.

"We? Get real Fang! Since when did you start cooking?" Lightning Farron shot back immediately. Noticed Fang was uncomfortable with her comment, she couldn't help but proud of her retaliation.

"What?! I do cook sometime, you just didn't know." Fang protested, nonetheless she knew Lightning got her there.

"That's awesome. Vanille and I will decide on the menu and go get it. You guys here get other things ready." Sarah took the command. Well, it naturally, she knew among 4 of them, vanille and herself were the only cook. Fang and Lightning were hopeless, last time Sarah checked, after Lightning tried to cook something for herself when she alone, there 2 pans and a pot were thrown out and only god knew what happen to those.

Sarah immediately visualized menu inside her head. She picked most of Lightning's favorites, and then reached to Vanille dragging the older girl out to the market.

...

When their cooks have arrived back, Lightning and Fang were chilling on the couch, Lightning was reading her book and Fang, she was playing her Nintendo (xD). They had washed some extra plates, glasses and got a table ready for their dinner. Fang insisted for a pleasant atmosphere while the pink-headed wanted to be just simple, nevertheless Fang won the battle and Lighting was forced to tag along to get those decorations.

Noticed all the preparations, Vanille beamed to the duo on the couch, snapped their attention to her.

"Hmmm, I see you both went all out here."

"Ask Fang." Lightning replied lazily, her eye still focused on her book.

"Of course! It's for our Lightning here." Fang teased back and obviously she earned a glare from the girl next to her.

"Alright. We better get our job done too." Sarah said while pickin up the ingredient she bought and Vanille was closely behind her, making their way to the kitchen.

...

It was 7 PM when everything ready for the fest so that mean it took full 3 hours long for Sarah and Vanille to cook the food. Whatever was the case, reward from that 3 hours cooking was fantastic. Sarah and Vanille had fixed such beautiful and mouthwatering dishes for their little special gathering. It's all been placed on the table nicely ready for them to consume.

Everyone have freshen up and settled down together around the table and they were so impressed with everything they've done for themselves. 4 people dinning luxury dishes on a well decorated table, under the beautiful family atmosphere. It was just so perfect, Lightning was so overwhelming. She has never felt like this in ages.

"It seems like we've done a great job here." Vanille decided to start the conversation.

"We sure did! Okay, get your glass up guys... To Lightning-"Fang cheered.

"-, for her new job. The starting point of a glorious future and I'm sure as hell that this girl will kick everyone's ass again in this new place." She blessed and everyone accept Lightning chuckled at the last part.

"Fang, that goes without saying." The younger Farron supported sparing a glance to her sister direction.

"Hey." Lightning replied defensively. Though, it was true. It's her nature to begin with. She couldn't help it as people sometime are hell of annoying bunch, so she had to put them in their place.

"Now, now. Chill out Light. We were just teasing you." Vanille played her role in reassuring and started picking up the fork to devour the food she worked so hard to make so everyone else followed afterward.

"Thank you so much, you three surely are my only family and what you've done today is really amazing. I am so grateful to have you guys with me." Lightning announced with a content expression, eyeing her family around the table before started her dinner.

"Oh come on. We knew it." Fang blurted out through her mouth full of food.

"Light, you're flattering me there." cooed Vanille

"Sis, we all love you."

_Everything was so perfect for me until you happened..._

...

This was her first day at Caelum Corporation. Lightning got up early, exercised and readied herself for any challenge that coming her way at this new place. She put on the outfits that Sarah picked for her and yeah that included _those shoes_. People might not believe this but Lightning already mastered walking on those unusual shoes, or so it seemed to her. And that really brought out Lightning's feminine elegant side as per her sister's comment.

When Sarah approved that everything readied and would make a good first impression Lightning picked up her stuffs, made her way to the bus station.

"See ya in the evening Sarah."

"Okay sis. Good luck."

...

That was not her first time there, since she already came here for the interview but seriously, was this company really this big? Or was her mind so fix with interview and didn't notice the surrounding? Lightning wondered while she was told to sit in the waiting room, waited for person in charge to come and get her settle in. After about 10 minutes, a man in white shirt, black trousers with glasses and funny hair emerged. Saw the way he dressed, Lightning could tell that he must be one of the high ranked executives in this Corporation. He stopped in front of her, introduced himself and offering his hand for the greeting.

"Good morning, I am Ignis Scientia. Nice to meet you."

"Good morning Mr. Scientia, I'm Claire Farron and the pleasure was mind." Lightning accepted his hand and saluted back.

"Welcome to Caelum Corporation, Ms. Farron. Okay, so on your first day I am going to be your instructor and I will be around for 2 weeks to help you settle in. But first, I would like you to meet our department manager" Ignis presented and started walking toward the elevator.

"Yes, thank you." Lightning replied and followed closely behind her instructor.

_Ping._

The elevator arrived and they both got inside. Ignis pressed for 10th floor and turned back to the new intern.

"So how is your feeling on your first day, hm?" He asked courteously.

"A little bit nervous but I'll be alright. Thank you." Lightning replied back nicely.

"I understand. You'll be okay." Lightning just responded him with a warm smile and he nodded back.

The rest of the ride was awkwardly silent until they reached their destination. The two employees stepped out then Ignis took the lead again. They both came to stop in front a blur looking glass door. The instructor knocked and waited a few second before reached for the knob open it for both of them to enter.

"Mr. Caelum." Ignis started courteously.

The man at the desk took his eyes off the monitor, focused instead on the visitors who were standing in front of his desk.

"Yeah, the new intern." He muttered while looking at Ignis.

"Mr. Caelum, this is Ms. Claire Farron, our new intern." The executive introduced.

"Welcome to the corporation Ms. Farron." The man behind the desk turned to the said intern and greeted with a smile.

TBC

**Please pardon my grammar and spelling mistake. I'll edit when my beta get back to me.**

**I want to take things slow and build up for main plot, so I hope you reader out there don't mind it.**

**So what do you guys think for this chapter? Please let me know by clicking review alright?.**

**Okay until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Happy New Year Guys!**

**Firstly, I'd like to address regarding the 50 Shades of Grey Novel. To be really honest, I don't know about this novel until u guys mentioned it, so I googled it and I can say that this fic is not adapting from that novel but is written base on one personal experience, in short, this fic is about my personal experience especially the conflict of the main characters. I hope this clarified all the confusion. Anyway I also change the summary of the fic to avoid any future confusion :)**

**Again, all the characters in this fic owned by SE, I own only a little plot of the fic.**

**Finally, please pardon my spelling and grammar mistake.**

**Enjoy.**

After a brief meeting with the department manager or so she was told, Lightning followed her instructor to her work station. They had a brief walk then Ignis pulled open another door to the next room, revealed a hall with 3 rows of work cabinets, each rows started a few steps from the door across the room and ended near the clear glass window of the building. Everyone seemed to not notice the new presences in the room; they kept their focus on whatever task they were doing. Lightning noticed, almost everyone there had their eyes fixed on the screen monitor and glancing here and there across the paper in hand, reconciling with data on the screen. Some of the staffs had the shoulder gripped phone to their ear, having the conservation with the other side, noting something on the paper or searching for the file to assist in exchanging information.

The new intern observed her new work place, noted to herself about the way things flow, so she would find the key point to understand and adapt in swiftly. Losing in her thought, Lightning and her instructor finally came to stop in front of a cabinet; she assumed that one was hers and as anticipated, Ignis professionally presented to her :"Ms. Farron, this is your station. Please make yourself at home. I'll be back in an hour to brief you about your tasks, in the meantime feel free to browse." Lightning bowed a little and thank her instructor, "Thank you so much Mr. Scientia."

"You're welcome." He smiled, turned around and left the new intern on her own device, for now. "Time to get thing started." Lightning muttered to herself. She started with the files on her counter, opened it and started scanning the content inside, absorbing all the knowledge she could find from the file. She smartly took note of parts that she couldn't understand, so she would raise the questions if after hearing Ignis's guidance, she still couldn't figure out.

Just to clarify, Lightning was doing her internship in Finance Department of the Corporation, it was also the subject she was pursuing at Bodhum University. This major seems to be a perfect match with her personality, Lightning was ruthless, blunt and pretty straight forward in everything, just like they said the number doesn't lie anything. Our older Farron didn't like to deal to with people but she enjoys dealing, fighting with paper works and numbers. To her 8 hours with financing tasks was just like a blink of eyes, she really put all her concentration into the job at hands. To be really honest, Lightning was really proud of herself that all the hard work in studying at the university was finally paid off, though she didn't have any experience related to Caelum Corporation's business, she could read through the files and pin pointed the scope of her tasks. Lightning was pretty sure she already knew what was her tasks gonna be.

...

Our new intern already showed her workaholic attribute in just her first hour at the station. If not for her instructor, Ignis, who brought Lightning back to real world by his speech, she wouldn't have aware there someone was standing next to her and 2 hours had passed already. Yeah, Ignis Scientia was late; he was occupied by other tasks and couldn't make it back in time as promised. But he could tell Ms. Claire Farron wasn't disappointed or maybe remembered that he was coming back, his intern had her eyes glued on the file in front her and sometime has swayed here and there contemplating something inside her head. As an executive, Ignis could tell that she was a good seed which could produce quality fruit with just a bit of fertilize.

"I see. You started things without me."

"O-Oh! I was just reading the file and see things around while you gone. Nothing much actually." Lightning's reply was kinda stutter as surprise by Ignis's sudden appearance.

"It's alright. So let's start."

Ignis settled down on the chair next to the cabinet, started to explain the basic stuffs about the job that he about to hand over to Lightning, who sat there and listened intensely. He started with the foundation and the business of the company, who was the owner, what was the main business, how the work flow, in charged person of each departments etc. By the end of the tale, Lightning learned about what she has to do and some information of this company.

Ignis outlined her daily duties and responsibilities which were pretty basic, Lightning need to be at office form 9am to 4:30pm. She has to check and verify the documents which would be placed on her counter or through email, confirm verified then submit to the person in charge for approval and post it into the system. By the end of each week, summary report of all the transactions in that week has to be submitting to department manager on time. Lightning was really confident that she would give a standout performance for the role.

However, these were also challenging tasks the new intern had to conquer. As per Ignis, 3 months internship period was a provision to evaluate the performance whether Lightning was good enough for a permanent role. _Nonetheless, if your performance good enough, regardless you completed 3 months or not, you might be hire as permanent staffs._ That was the exception part that the instructor pointed out.

So be it. Never back down from anything was Lightning's trademark and fighting for what she wants was not questionable, so obviously she aimed to get that possible spot, potentially in a time frame of a month or two. Securing that mean, she secured the good income for the household and wouldn't have to worry about any unexpected occurrences.

However, everything can't be completely smooth, can it? When her role didn't seem to pose much difficulty for Lightning, the Company details part bothered her. Caelum Corporation was found by Regis Caelum, a really powerful business man in the city. What Ms. Farron heard of this Regis Caelum was a really strict person and want things to be as close as possible to what called flawless and the only son of him, Noctis Caelum was the head of, main part of the company, Finance Department, so it mean Lightning _has_ to work for this Corporation's heir.

_Great! Just great!_ Lightning sighed inside her head. Now she has to put up with a spoiled rich kid. Seriously, rich people are annoying; they always want to be treated differently and discriminated who were not in their league. Moreover, kids who born with silver spoon in their mouth are the worst. They can have whatever they want without much effort, everyone strive to please them even in wrong way. So the pink hair intern sure as hell that rich people are unreasonable and she preferred to avoid any interaction as much as possible. Anyway, that not the option for her in the current case, she couldn't possibly give up her income source when she desperately need it, just because it collided with her personal preference. No, she has to endure it; she must put up with whatever comes to her. Anyway, the earlier encounter with this so called Noctis Caelum whom appeared to be 2 or 3 years older than her, reassured her a bit as the said guy's behavior shown to be mature and responsible. Nonetheless, the way he dressed and styled was absolutely stand out and Light knew _why_ already. His hair style was not professional at all, it was chocobo's butt styled, of all styles around, with messy bang framed his face. Well, Lightning found Ignis's hair funny but at least it looked proper for office environment, unlike Noctis's, the manager. To be really honest that chocobo's butt hair was more for playboy at the club rather than a high ranked professional but whatever, who care, her manager was a rich kid after all. All those traits aside, surprisingly, Noctis Caelum was police and carried himself well in such a professional manner, during their little interaction. Lightning gave him that but still she knew, she has to be ready for any possible difficulty ahead as rich people are still rich people.

...

The pink headed spent half of her day on the job, she almost forgot about the lunch time if not for people in the hall started to move abruptly. Lightning bookmarked the page she was working on, closed the cover and placed it carefully on her desk. She then gathered her stuffs making her way for lunch. Lightning decided to eat her lunch at a coffee shop 5 minute walk from the corporation building. Settled down on a table for two next to the side of walk of the road, she read the menu, contemplating on the order when suddenly the chair in front of her was pulled unexpectedly, prompted Claire Farron to automatically look for the source of this intrusion with a hostile gaze. Ms. Farron's eyes landed upon a tall mall figure with black hair and grey eyes, standing next to her table with his right hand on the chair that just been moved. Judging on the outfit he was wearing, Lightning could tell that he must be an employee around here.

"May I?" The man asked with gentle voice.

The pink hair intern was dumbfounded for a few second, she was pretty sure this man was not anybody she has met or known before, so he was here and would like to join her was beyond current comprehension. Though without her reply, it didn't stop the man from settle down. _So why the hell did he ask in the first place?_

"I'm sorry but I think there some misunderstanding here-"

"We work for the same company so I think I should introduce myself." The stranger cut her off calmly.

"We do?...but why?" Lightning replied dryly.

"My name is Cid Raines, marketing manager of Caelum Corporation. Nice to meet you" Cid introduced and offered for a handshake.

Lightning was definitely not happy to have this stranger intruding her alone time especially with this kind of attitude, however; as a new comer she was not in any position to decline or ignore any colleague introduction either, let alone a department manager. So even she not happy about it but comply was an absolute choice here.

"Claire Farron. Pleasure to meet you Mr. Raines." She reluctantly accepted his hand and slyly bowed.

"Call me Cid. I'd love to join you for lunch but unfortunately I have something urgent to do so I hope you have a great one and I'll see you around at the office." With that, cid smiled, stood up and taking his leave.

"Yes, thank you." The pinkette politely stood up sending him off.

_Seriously, what the hell was that? _Was the first thing that came to our Farron's mind when the man gone. It didn't make sense to her but at the moment there was no point to bother and wasting her break time. Lightning could careless on people's odd behavior and stuffs as long as it wouldn't cause any problem to her. They were working for the same company so pieces would eventually come together at some point, it was better to forget it and deal with the tasks at hand first.

...

The entire second half of the day has gone so fast for the pink hair intern. After Lightning Farron finished her lunch she immediately got herself back to the tasks that Ignis has given to her. She drowned herself in the paper work, calculation, files for approval and get to know the database she using. By the end of the day, the Ms. Farron has finished the first file of the 3 in total. She pretty much contented with her accomplishment, anyway, it was the time for her to get back home already. So she decided to put down the file into the cabinet locked it and sort out any mess on her table such as pencil, calculator; put them back to its place neatly before getting her handbag and headed home. Lightning was a clean freak; she couldn't stand any mess around her. Everything she usually interacts with must be clean and in order, all the thing of her house, room and work station included. She enjoy doing cleaning and she good at it, while her sister Sarah loves cooking, so they both completed each other perfectly for the housework.

After making sure all stuffs were back in place Ms. Farron finally made her way out her office. She came to stop in front of the elevator door of her current floor. Lightning was waiting patiently for elevator to come when she heard foot step echoed quietly toward her. Turning her head to source of the sound, the pink headed came face to face with her manager, heir of the company, Noctis Caelum. He had his left hand inside his pocket, walking casually toward the elevator. He stopped a few step from the intern, smiled and nodded courteously while she regarded him the same. The silent stretched for a few good second until finally the manager decided to start the conversation.

"So, how was the first day?" He asked.

"It was good. I really enjoy the role."

_Ping_

The elevator has arrived, Lightning then walked in while Noctis did the same afterward, door closed and the room started to move down to the floor that its passengers have instructed.

Eyes were staring at the electronic number indicate that keep chaning, the spiky hair man praised shortly: "Good." Then silent again fill the room for the rest of the ride but it wasn't awkward or anything as both manager and intern seemed to enjoy the wordless atmosphere.

The elevator finally came to stop when it reached the ground floor and both passengers made their way out but before they went on their separate next destination, Noctis talked to the pink hair woman who was about to leave, prompted her to faced him again.

"See you tomorrow Ms. Farron. We'll have a lot to go through together, so let do our best for the months to come." He said and presented her with a charming smile.

"Yes, sir. I'll do my best." Lightning bowed politely in respect.

_This is just the beginning..._

...

Time flow so fast, it's already been 3 months since Lightning has started working for Caelum Corporation. And everything went smoothly at her work place, she gets along well with the colleague, done a good job, became acquaintance with few new high ranked people, got hired permanently. Yes! Ms. Farron made it. Also Sarah graduation was in the next two weeks anyway, Lighting had prepared everything ready for sister enrolling for her nurse college. So they all set. Talking about school, the older Farron was struggling a bit with her study since she started working. She changed her study to night shift for part time, as she has to spare the weekend for her sister and herself to relax. But going to school after worked full time wasn't easy; Claire couldn't concentrate properly as she sometime was too exhausted, stressed or moody from office, so inevitably her grades drop. It wasn't too bad but having grades drop isn't a good sign for student, still Lightning couldn't do anything about it.

The strawberry pink woman has busy weeks await her. Aside from full time work and school, this upcoming weekend the Farron sisters were invited to have lunch with Fang and Vanille. There was no particular occasion for this gathering but Vanille said she wants them to meet with someone. So the schedules of Monday to Saturday were full and Sunday's schedule was automatically going to be full of cleaning and laundry for the pink headed sibling. The week after that was about Sarah graduation, college enrollment and yeah another party.

...

Alarm clock on the top of the bed started to ring annoyingly and a few second later, sound of person shift in bed was heard. Lightning blindly got up to stop the alarm then dragged herself to the bathroom, getting ready for work, while at the kitchen, the younger Farron, Sarah was preparing the breakfast ready to start their new day. After 20 minutes, Lightning got dressed and done her hair, made her way down to the kitchen. She was greeted by yummy aroma of pancake and green tea, as expected, there on the dining table, a cub of green tea was sitting ready for her to consume and in the background her sister was cunningly cooking the pancake in the pan. The older Farron blew the steam of the tea and sipped it a bit before greeting her younger sister.

"Morning Sarah."

"Good morning sis, sleep well?" Sarah responded while still doing her task.

"It was okay, but I'm still tired."

"It's alright sis, have this breakfast and you will be good as new." The younger Farron chirped, preparing the dish and put in front of her sister. She couldn't help but noticed the hair of her sister. Lightning had her hair in a single ponytail with the bang framed her forehead and some longer part drop as curtain on both sides of her face. It looked oddly different and beautiful, it not like Lightning's usual hair style wasn't good but it just this one stood out more.

"Light, you look so nice today." Sarah praised.

"What are you talking about?" Lightning cut her pancake, ate it then gave her sister a skeptical look.

"I mean your hair. It looks nice today."

"Nah, I just thought it's more neatly this way."

Sarah hummed in agreement then sat down and started eating her share too.

"Okay Sarah, thank you. I'm going now, see ya in the evening." Lightning stood up and picked up her plate, put in the sink then getting her stuffs heading to work.

"Alright sis, Good day."

...

Claire really enjoy doing her work, it was one of those things she passionate about. And as a permanent staff, her responsibilities were bigger and more serious than what she's done during the provisional period. Aside from checking and posting, she also has authority to approve some of the paper works she handled. This part really motivated Lightning to work harder and striving to accomplish her job more effectively, by this she could gradually building the path to get into management level. But something bothered her a little too, since she took up this role, her works involved a lot around her manager. Lightning sometime had to spend 1 or 2 hours in manager's room to sort things, paper works or getting instruction. The weirdest thing was even the file for approval, the pink headed was told to go submit and pick it up by herself, She's always wanted to ask about this but questioning the superior is not something nice to do on miscellaneous things and this was the Corporation's heir we talking about. Nonetheless, all those things weren't the main issue here, the point was, the speech, weird gaze and smile that her manager sent toward her. It made Lightning Farron flustered.

..._wait flustered? Why of all people, the mighty Lightning Farron flustered?_

That the point which she herself couldn't figure out, however; Lightning refused to pay much attention to it, she kept pushing it to the back of her mind and told herself that she just thinking too much.

...

_Ring Ring Ring_

The phone on the desk started to ring, the pink hair employee's hand pick it up and put it on her ear while her eyes still fixed on the monitor screen.

"Claire Farron speaking. May I help you?" She greeted.

"Come to my office." With that, the line disconnected.

If Lightning was new, she wouldn't know which office she has to go. But this is Claire; she knew that this line came from no one other than her manager, Noctis Caelum. Putting down the phone back in place, Lightning picked herself up, heading to meet her manager. Reached the door, she knocked then opened it letting herself inside. "Yes, sir? You called?" She asked.

"Yeah.." The spiky black hair manager said then pulls his desk's middle drawer, took out a file and handing it to his employee. "Get this done by 3 o'clock _tomorrow._"

Lightning accepted the papers, acknowledged her task and took her leave.

Something was off, that was the first thing came to Lightning's head when she left the room. She could feel the black aura emitted from Noctis, his expression and behavior suggested that he was not in good mood at all and Lightning was sure, she's never seen him like this before, so she was kinda curious about it now. But that was none of her business and it not like her at all to curious about other's affair. So she brushed the thought aside, Lightning decided to browse the file instead, examine on the task she had to do.

"Okay, this can wait a little." She muttered to herself, making the way back to her station.

_Clock ticked 3PM_

_Ring Ring Ring_

"Claire Farron speaking, May I-"

"It's 3 o'clock so where's my file Claire?" Noctis voiced sternly.

"File? This morning file? but isn't it be readied to-"

"Enough! How come you can't finish that file in 4 hours?!"

Something inside Lightning snapped, she sighed exasperatedly to herself. How come she had him accusing her of not being able to complete the task?! Seriously that WASN'T her fault; Noctis Caelum said to get it done by _tomorrow_ 3 o'clock and _just_ w_hat the hell is this?_

"But sir, you said it has to be done by tom-" She was cut off again and this time Lightning was barely able to contend her anger.

"Stop! I take no excuse. Come to my office NOW!" The department manager pressed dangerously and cut the line off.

Lightning was desperately trying to calm herself down, she has to stay calm when standing face to face with him, or else she might did something she would regret. However this was stupid, she was sure she heard him clearly, his every single word, so why the hell was this shit happen? The strawberry pink was really angry, frustrated and annoyed; she takes no shit from anyone unless it her own mistake and this was just falling into that case.

Finally, made it to Noctis's office, Lightning took a few deep breathe then knocked on the door, when she about to opened and get inside, the door flung open and Ignis emerged with an exhausted expression. The two employees regarded each other silently by bowing then Ignis immediately took his leave while Lightning walked into the room and closed the door behind her. There, sat behind the fancy desk, Noctis Caelum, had his elbows propped on the table and his fingers crossed in front of his mouth, the posture indicated nothing but superiority. He eyed his employee with a displeased gaze, when Lightning eventually came to stand in front of him; he started:

"Listen Ms. Farron, listen well and clear, I take no excuse for anything. If the task given was too much just tell me, I'll do it myself, so I won't have to deal with the consequences like today. Do you how much time I've wasted because of your irresponsible attitude?"

"Well, I don't know but I am pretty sure I got fail information from you. Again, you-" Lightning made her reply firmly but was again cut off half way by her furious manager.

"I already told you, I take no excuse! So you better watch yourself and if you can't comply with that then pick up your stuffs and leave. Do I make myself clear?" His voice was full contempt.

"Yes, sir." Was all Lightning could say at that moment.

**TBC**

**Thank guys for reading this anyway, please let me know what you think.**

**And just for the head up, interaction between main characters will be more detail from next chapter.**

**Thank you.**


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